1.1.11

2010 was full of excitement. It was wedding wedding wedding and then more wedding. At some point we slipped in the honeymoon, but 2010 was definitely the Year We Got Married.

Now that it's all over, I'm refocusing on building a better home for us before we grow our family, and also carving out a more fulfilling life for myself. Here are my 6 resolutions to better myself and my marriage.

1. Find ways to be creative on my own terms. What was really fantastic about the wedding was that I had the opportunity to work on so many art projects that my friends and family would eventually be able to see or use. I didn't have to abide by many rules the way you would working for a client, and so my wedding became a way for me to be creative on my own terms.

I've been thinking about a lot of different ways I can make my own art projects in my spare time to get my creativity flowing again. One project I thought of was a mail art project, in which I would send a care package, all dolled up by the hands of yours truly, to one of my friends or family members every month. I love getting pretty mail, surely my friends and family would appreciate something from me? In any case, it would give me an excuse to do something creative and have someone I love reap the benefits.

I was gifted a Barnes and Noble gift card, and I'm going to use it on this:

It will be hard to pick what to make or who will be the recipient, but I think it will be fun and give me back my spark! And of course, it'd all be documented here.

2. Be more assertive. Telling people 'no' is not my forte. It's something I've struggled with my whole life, and at times I surprise myself by really asserting what I believe and what I want, but for the most part I'm a huge wimp and side-step saying 'no' or having much of a voice for fear of hurting others. If I'm not aware of it, I can go through life just keeping my opinions to myself and not 'rocking the boat', but I'm going to approach 2011 with more awareness, more ferocity, more boldness. You better watch out, because I'm going to learn how to say 'no' and you're going to like it! Grrr! Are you convinced yet??

3. Cook. Ah yes. Cooking. We're really bad at it. It's horrible how much we eat out. We've vowed to do this many, many times over the course of our relationship, and we always fail after about a month. Somehow watching Man v. Food does not help.

4. Do yoga and run on the beach more. I love how I feel after yoga and running out in the sun. It just makes me so much happier. My time is limited because I'm stuck at a desk doing a variety of tasks that would bore you just by explaining them, but I need to be aware of setting aside time for myself to get my heart racing.

5. Take a Cantonese language course. This one might be tough since I do grad school on the side, so maybe 2012 would be more appropriate. One day, I'll find the time to learn so I can better communicate with my family and any Cantonese-speaking patrons of the library.

6. Do not yell at the boy. You'd think someone who listed "be more assertive" as a resolution wouldn't be a yeller, but in my case I shamefully yell when I'm upset. I mainly only yell when it's just the two of us, and I really want to quit the habit. The boy has started using the safe word "hippo". Every time I start yelling, he says "hippo" (I really like hippos, and the word is just kinda funny) and then it's silence for 5 seconds until I can continue talking.

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comments:

I definitely need to learn how to say "no" more -- I just keep piling things on my plate because I want to help others. And I can't wait to get back into yoga (I'm planning to take a class at UCSD if you're interested in doing that with me). I haven't made all of my resolutions yet, but one big one is to take care of myself and rediscover my dreams.

@Brandi: Thanks for the yoga offer Brandi! Unfortunately I've been going to CorePower on Regents and still have classes left on my membership. I've taken some UCSD fitness classes and they have all been good, hopefully yoga will be too!

@julia and BigAppleNosh: I'll definitely update you on the saying 'no' endeavor. I typically rationalize "eh, it's not such a big deal" in my head even if I don't want to do it.

Those are such great ones! two of them (be more assertive, and take Cantonese--most classes available are in Mandarin, which if I remember right is true in SD too?) are on my life goal list. That book looks so awesome--I hope you share all your mail creations! :) Also, really cute picture!